Research on the application of knowledge by public health interveners and deciders: a scoping study

In the field of the application of knowledge (KA), a vast portion of the literature related to health promotion or population health has not yet been systematically analyzed. However, if the knowledge is to be used by decision-makers and KA organizations in public health and knowledge of these issues is to progress, it is necessary to survey the status of what is known to date.

This project is intended to examine and analyze the literature on KA resulting from research on complex social interventions in public health. The study specifically involves two elements:

The processes (role of the context, facilitating factors, obstacles);

The effects:

direct (on practices, on decision-making),

indirect (improvement in the well-being of the users of the social interventions and the population).

To achieve this objective, the researchers joined with CLIPP, which is involved in the project as the designated user of the knowledge. In fact, the CLIPP decision-makers expressed the need to know the most promising KA strategies and to perfect their tools for evaluating the effects of KA. Thus the objective of this research study results from both an attentive analysis of the needs for knowledge revealed by the study of scientific articles but also of needs identified and formulated by CLIPP.